Field Instrumentation to Study the Time-Dependent Behavior in Sunshine Skyway Bridge. I

Abstract

This paper presents the comprehensive instrumentation program for the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Florida, which has been carried out to monitor the bridge behavior during and after construction. The program includes the physical measurements of concrete compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, Poisson's ratio, coefficient of thermal expansion, shrinkage, creep, concrete strains, vertical deflections, and temperature distributions at selected locations of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Florida. A comparative study of the measured time-dependent strains of a typical pylon and segments of the bridge and the corresponding analytical predicted values are presented in a companion paper.